Glycol aldehyde is a valuable intermediate useful in the synthesis of other organic compounds, and can be converted, for example, to ethylene glycol by hydrogenation. Processes for the production of glycol aldehyde by the reaction of formaldehyde with carbon monoxide and hydrogen in the presence of certain rhodium catalysts are described in the co-pending application of Alwyn Spencer, Ser. No. 256,183 filed Apr. 21, 1981, assigned to the same assignee as the present application, and in U.S. Pat. No. 4,200,765, issued to Richard W. Goetz on Apr. 29, 1980. The present invention is an improvement over the above mentioned processes in that the present applicants have found that the yields of glycol aldehyde can be improved and the reaction rate can be increased if the reaction is catalyzed with rhodium catalysts having certain ligands associated therewith and is carried out in the presence of basic organic amine compositions. Moreover, by operating within the scope of the process of this invention, it is also possible to achive stable catalyst compositions which can be reused in the production of glycol aldehyde.
It should be noted that the aforementioned patent describes that amines have a deleterious effect on the yield of glycol aldehyde from formaldehyde, carbon monoxide and hydrogen. However, this conclusion was reached because the rhodium catalyst employed by the patentee in conjunction with basic amines actually gave an adverse effect. The present applicants have found that basic organic amines actually improve the process if employed in conjunction with certain rhodium catalysts as more fully described hereinafter.